Yante Maten Outburst Puts Him in Exclusive Sioux Falls Skyforce Group

On average, it happens once every season. A Sioux Falls Skyforce player drops 40 or more points in a game.

After forward Yante Maten registered 42 points in Sunday’s game against Stockton, it marks the 33rd time over 30 seasons that the feat has been accomplished. When you look at some similarities of all these 40 or more outbursts a few things stand out.

Most of them came in Sioux Falls as Maten’s was the ninth such performance on the road. Generally if a Skyforce player scores 40 or more, the team wins. Nine times a player hit that many for Sioux Falls in a losing effort. There are four occasions where the standard was reached on the road in a loss. The first time it ever happened in franchise history was in the team’s first win as Ralph Lewis went for 46 on December 7, 1989.

Another facet for future considerations, only twice did a 40-point game come in consecutive contests. Tharon Mayes is the only player to do it back-to-back in 1991 while a pair of Skyforce Hall-of-Famers Kasib Powell and David Bailey each turned the trick in 2008.

Powell’s 46 points in March of that year tied the record for most ever by a Skyforce player. That mark was finally surpassed by Scotty Hopson who finished with 52 in a game back in 2015 and is still the only time a Skyforce player has ever scored 50 or more.

In case you’re wondering, there are 13 of the 30 individual seasons where a 40-point barrage didn’t happen. Amazingly, the Skyforce went almost five years without a 40-point game in a span covering January 29, 1997 through December 21, 2001. For a list of Skyforce 40-point games click here.